China - PingYao

Our train from Xi'an took 3 hours where my mum gazed across the train window analysing every trees and plants out there.

She looked so cute

We purchased our train tickets to Beijing as soon as we arrived at the train station in PingYao - lucky we did as the train leaving at our preferred time was already sold out, with only first class tickets available for the next train! FYI, in Chinese bullet trains, first class = business class, whilst business class = first class i.e. the most luxurious ticket out there.

Accommodation

We stayed in a family room in this very cosy courtyard hotel inside the walled city of PingYao. It was actually 2 separate rooms!

We loved sitting on the courtyard enjoying the sun/breakfast/playing with the puppies. The shops, restaurants are all within walking distance - but we found the hotel food was really good, reasonably priced and the portions was really generous. Henceforth, we ate most our meals in the hotel! The staff speak good English (a luxury after our past experiences communicating with Google translate & body language), were very helpful and accommodating.

Ridiculous portion for 3 person breakfast

Sights

South Street

Full of restaurants and shops, we went for a wander here where my mum showed her proficient bargaining skills - she bargained down a trinket from ¥200 to ¥60 😅.

The city reminded us of Chinese martial art (kungfu) movies where they could jump from roof to roof

(Robot) hand-cut noodle 

The wall itself

We went on the top of the wall and walked around for a bit before exiting in a random quiet street that totally looked like a movie set. To enter the top of the wall, we needed to purchase a ticket that was valid for 2 days and it covered PingYao's other 'attractions' as well, which are mainly old houses/government buildings with ancient furniture. But, we only checked one of such houses, since my mum already over seeing Chinese furniture she couldn't touch.

Many statues and their lookalike on the top of the wall

As it was very hot - up to 35℃ some days, we found it very common though odd not to mention off-putting, for men to walk around flaunting their belly!

As demonstrated by this kind volunteer

My superstar

This was all only for show - my mum was TERRIFIED of traffic here. I couldn't imagine her horror if she rode a bicycle on the street

Wang Family Compound

About an hour away from PingYao, this family compound is almost a tiny town by itself used to be occupied by many generations of cousins, uncles, aunties, of a very rich merchant family: the Wang family.

It even had its own school! Understandable since there's one Wang that had 20 kids in his lifetime

With its many alleys linking all the different houses

Complete with beautiful gardens all over the compound

Sprawling mansion!

To be honest, I thought most China would look like PingYao; obviously, I watched way too many kungfu movies. It was lovely to actually experience the 'ancient' China vibe, and this city definitely delivered that. Off to the capital: Beijing, to stuff our tummy with countless ducks!